Flown Away
by IsabellaWatervuur
Summary: As Astrid ran off to tell Stoick what kind of a failure his fishbone of a son really was, Hiccup realised he only had one choice: To fly away.
1. Chapter 1

Prologue.

As Hiccup saw the blonde braid bobbing away, he realised one thing: he was so dead. He watched the exit from the cove for just a moment, and when he realised Astrid certainly wasn't coming back to jump in his, well, scrawny arms, he sighed deeply.

"Da, da, da, we're dead." He turned around to his Night Fury who snorted smugly with his toxic eyes glittering. His rider looked at him irritated, and the black dragon gave a gummy grin.

"Congratulations, Toothless, you just made me an Outlaw." Hiccup tugged at his green tunic to straighten it out at the places where Astrid wrinkled the woollen fabric with her hands. Astrid. She was so fierce, so brave and dutiful. So Viking. Of course she'd run off to Stoick, to tell him what a failure his fishbone of a son really was. It wasn't looking like he could ever return to the Hooligans without having his head ripped off.

Hiccup turned on his heels to march back to his bag with supplies, a new confidence filled him. No more complaining of the village, the taunts and jeers of the teens or his father's dissapointment. He breathed in the fresh air and smiled widely. He hauled his bagpack on, and climbed on Toothless. The dragon gave an excited warble.

"Well Toothless, it seems like we can do what we want." He said while scratching Toothless. "Let's go, bud."

And with that, they took of the island Berk.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own anything of How to Train Your Dragon.

Chapter 1. Oh, Hel.

Hiccup P.O.V

It was actually a pretty normal day for Hiccup -as far as he could apply the word 'normal'- when the news arrived in the little village where he usually traded his goods. It wasn't exactly unusual for the village to hear news, and most of them passed it off as rumours most of the time. The village itself was stated in the middle of the islands that made up Denmark, and was a haven for travellers from south to north, so the village had heard its fair share of absurd stories the merchants from the south brought with them. The village was stated next to a river, and was actually quite small if you compared it to the number of travellers that were passing through. Hiccup had taken residence nearby the village, and most of the villagers knew the young man with the weird accent and the gangly build. Hiccup himself was also used to them, and their strong tales they passed from mouth to mouth, making it stronger on each tongue on wich it lay. So, when on that morning Hiccup stood on the market with his metal trinkets and inventions spread out before him and heard news about an island in the north, he ignored it at first. The teller of the tale was a very roughed up looking man, with a frizzy brown beard and filthy clothes.

"Believe me, that island there is overrun! It is horrible, it is Hel upon earth!" He almost screamed to his listeners. Hiccup rolled his eyes and leaned against his table with a lopsided grin on his face. This was gonna be good if it started with the conviction of Hel upon earth.

"Dragons! Dragons I say, that's what they battle against!" Hiccup stiffened immediatly and straightened his posture. He only knew one place in the world where people battled continually against dragons and that place was...

"Berk! That's the name alright! Berk!" Hiccup had a spasm and knocked over a few of his goods. One of the customers asked if he was okay, and Hiccup waved the concerned looking blonde away.

"Isn't Berk one of the islands of the Dragon Archipelago? This is just old news." One of the villager women said sceptically. Hiccup scoffed at the name they gave the archipelago where Berk lay.

"Yes, that is all true, my dear villagers. But this isn't like the last few years. It is getting worse and worse, and they have a raid almost every week!" Hiccup started panicking at that point. Raids, every week?!

"And to make matters even worse, the next chief is an utter and complete idiot!" Well at least that didn't change if the next in line is Snotlout. Hiccup snorted and shook his head. To see that muttonhead as chief would be a horrible thing to see. _You left_ , said that nagging voice in the back of his head. Admittedly he did, but his village would have torn him apart if he stayed, and to be completely honest, his village sucked.

The crowd was whispering and lightly shoving each other. The man who had grown more confident in his story the more people stopped with their activities to listen to him, continued.

"Yes, they almost can't bear the pressure anymore, but they won't move away! Berk will be doomed, I say! Doomed!" And with that the speaker dramatically took off to the inn of the village, a wooden building with a rusty old sign hanging from it. Hiccup scoffed. Of course they would be doomed with the mindlessly killing of dragons. They were Vikings after all. He returned to his work and just shook his head. If only they knew.

"Arrrrrrrghhhhhh!" The battle cry was heard from everywhere, from every mouth that still worked between the flames and smoke. Dragons all around wreaked havoc, and all the Vikings were needed on the battlefield. Astrid took her axe out of the head of the Deadly Nadder she just had slain, and wiped the blood of her face. She looked around and saw that most of the dragons were chased off, and only a few were still standing between the flames and Vikings. She sighed. The last few years were awful around Berk. She began running towards a Gronckle who was chasing one of the kids from the Water Brigade. She lifted her axe and swung it on the flank of the beast. The Gronckle whimpered and flew off, raining blood on its way. The kid looked at her with wide blue eyes, and then gave her a grin. "Thanks, Astrid!" But she had already ran off, to see how the last dragon on their island took off with a sheep in its claws. Astrid shoulders sagged. It was over, for now at least. She took a breath, but instead of the fresh air her lungs were hoping for, she got the taste of smoke and fire in her. She didn't even cough anymore. She slung her axe over her shoulder and walked towards the great hall, where, naturally, they would discuss about their dragon problem.

"Fucking dragons and their numbers." She muttered angrily while walking the stairs towards the great hall. She didn't hear Snotlout running after her.  
"Hello Astrid, I can see that you're in need of my assistence." He began in his own personal trademark 'I-am-fantastic-and-you-need-to-jump-right-now-in-my-arms' voice. He slung his arm around her shoulders, only to be thrown into a grip that almost wrenched his arm off.  
"Oh yeah Snotlout, I can absolutely see that." She sneered at him, then she let him go and stomped up to the last bit of the stairs that led to the doors of the great hall. She squared her shoulders and pushed the doors open.

"...We need to! One more search! One, and those wretched beasts will be put down!" She heard the voice of the chief say. She quietly walked over to the mass that were listening closely to him. She pushed her way to the front and ignored the indignant mutters.

"Stoick, you always say that. Are you absolutely sure, that after one hundred times of trying, and losing afterwards, you will win this one time?" Spitelout said to him. Stoick immediatly gave him the full force of his glare. He started breathing harshly, and the massive red beard streaked with grey moved with him.  
"Spitelout," he began, "Those... Those devils took with their evil powers my son! My boy! What will happen if they target your kids too, huh? They are raiding more and more and are becoming more vicious as we speak!We need. To. Put. Them. Down!" The last words were said in a ferocious growl.

A/N

whoops sorry for not updating whoever is reading this, i am dutch and school started two months ago and it was really hectic. But here, an update!

P.s. Thanks for reading this tho


	3. Chapter 3

A flash of red, and a beastly roar were the only things he remembered from his dream when he woke up wildly and covered in sweat. His breath came in jagged, short gasps that were drawn struggling. He slowly stood up from his makeshift bed and felt the cold air cooling down his body. And while Hiccup Haddock looked into the dark of the night, he knew one thing: apperently the news he heard worried him more than he hoped it would.

(-**-)

It was certainly not going well for Astrid Hofferson that day. Another raid had taken place, and the village was tired. Berk was at it's end, and on a worse note, the best warriors would go away the next day to go on another hopeless search for the Nest. She looked down at the dirt and listened to the soft sounds the night, wich had almost come to its end, made. She climbed over a boulder, went through a passage mother nature had created and climbed down to the lake. She tiredly walked to the edge of it, and stood there, completely numb. First she let her axe fall, her body soon followed, downed by harsh reality and gravity. She sighed and shook her blonde hair out of her eyes. Her shoulders sagged. Another raid.

*flashback*

The smell of burnt wood was in her nostrils, the sound of screaming and crying in her ears, the sight of dragons and vikings fighting eachother in her eyes and the feeling of despair in her heart. The village couldn't take it anymore, not for much longer. The supplies were drained.

 _A dragon drained yet another viking of his life._

The people were exhausted.

 _She ran towards it, her muscles were tired and burning._

The village didn't even have time to rebuild the houses.

 _She passed a house with a burning roof._

The decisions of their once great chief were mad.

 _She lifted her axe, and let out a fierce battle cry, her hoarse voice lost in the growls and screams of pain._

The village wouldn't survive this.

 _She jumped, and swung her axe._

The village was dying.

 _Thump._ Numbly she turned around and ignored the head of the monstrous nightmare that was rolling over the ground she just killed.

/

Okay well sorry for not updating.

the only nation i rule is procrastination. Btw, this chapter is written on my ipad so if i made horrible mistakes i will just blame it on that. This chapter is a filler, i hope i can update tonight, tomorrow or the day after.

have a nice day!


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: The author of this story doesn't own HTTYD and its characters.

When dawn came, Hiccup still stood there. He sighed and turned around, and saw that Toothless was awake and staring at him with toxic green eyes. ''Goodmorning, bud." He greeted. He got a snort and a nuzzle as answer, and he absentmindly patted the dragon on his head. Why was he so worked up over the news? He exhaled loudly and pulled his fingers through his bronze hair, a frown etched on his face. Toothless cooed at him, and was watching him worriedly. He shook his head, and smiled crookedly at the dragon.

"It's nothing bud, just a memory." He said while walking towards the other end of his temporary residence. He lived, quite literally, like a caveman. He snorted at himself. He lived in a cave, talked on daily basis to a dragon and was constantly on the move. Ironic how he called the vikings barbaric just a few years ago. He himself wasn't that much better, he thought while pulling a green tunic over his head. As he was pulling his boots on he thought over his earlier life, and if he was right giving it up. But when he looked at the black dragon, all doubts flew out of his head. The vikings were the ones who were wrong, who couldn't look further than what tradition and prejudice told them to see. He hated them. Their prejudices, their impossible standards and their constant fighting and bloodshed. They were the beasts, not the dragons, who at least had a reason to raid the village. Even if the dragons wouldn't have existed, vikings would search for another place to attack man and animal alike, he had seen it.

(-flashback-)

He and Toothless had flown for three days straight, when they finally saw land. Hiccup narrowed his eyes, from what he could see was it nothing special. Just barren beaches and endless fields of grey grass waving in the wind. He nudged Toothless, and they set course for it. They started to climb down from the high altitude, and suddenly he saw it. A disturbingly familiar scene. Flaming houses, and running people.

Dragons! That was the first thing he thought. He urged Toothless to land in a small forest, just ten minutes walking from the village.

"Wait here bud, I will be right back." Toothless watched as his rider walked slowly out of the forest.

After walking for a few minutes, Hiccup arrived at the village. He was walking over a dirt road, muddy and wet, footsteps imprinted on the path. He bent down, and traced his fingers over the prints. Some of them were obviously of unarmed people and animals and charriots, but a few of them... He digged his fingers deeper in the prints. They were fresh, and deep. And they were human, and even better, they were from armed humans. He felt bile rise up his throat, everything in his being screaming to go back to Toothless and fly the hell out of the place. But he walked further up the road, slowly and deliberate.

At last he walked into the village, the wooden wall around it half destroyed and singed, filled with chips and arrows. A wailing child came running out of the entrance, completely ignoring him in her panic. He swallowed and set foot into the village, and was greeted with mayhem and sorrow. The wooden houses had lost their straw roofs, while some of their inhabitants lay dead before it, their glassy eyes unseeing.

"Who are you?" A half bald man with brown clothes and a rope as belt asked him. Hiccup first stared at the man's wound, a big gash above his eyebrow with dried blood around its edges, but then he registered the words. At first he didn't understand them, but slowly he realised that the man was talking in English. Stoick had learned it to him, saying that it was important for a future chief to know the languages of the countries around him. Slowly he spoke:

"My name is Hiccup. What happened here?" The man stared at him for a moment, his blue eyes surrounded by wrinkles seizing him up, and deeming him safe to talk to.

"It was the vikings!" Hiccup's eyes widened. Vikings? But the man stopped his train of thought because he kept talking.

"They came here, just like they did with other villages, and they raided everything! Winter is coming, and all of our supplies are gone! What are we going to eat? How are we going to care for the orphans, they stole all of our treasures at the monastry!" The man's arm pointed wildly at a small brick building at the far end of the village. Hiccup just stared at the man, who looked at him with a desperate face.

"I... I don't know." He stammered back at the hopeless man before him. "Exactly," the munk spat back sourly, "You don't know. We don't know. All because of the vikings, the king should just send all of his soldiers to fight against them. They can all die and rot in Hell, next to the other sinners! God will punish them!" Then the munk walked away, leaving behind a confused Hiccup.

(- end -)

Yes, Hiccup thought angry. They won't stop, they never will. They can never see the consequenses of their actions. Toothless looked at him with wary eye, for the angry energy Hiccup emitted wasn't good to feel, and his rider had that a lot, since that instance with their first landing after leaving Berk.

"What am I going to do, Toothless?" He sighed, "They are still my family, doesn't matter their faults, yet I can't seem to stop hate them." He let himself fall on the ground, with his back against the rock wall. "Plus, the vikings who were in England weren't Berkians, maybe the Berkians have evolved to another kind of living. Berk has never raided a village or island in its history." Toothless snorted at him. Hiccup stared blankly back. If that thing five years ago hadn't happened...

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If that thing five years ago hadn't happened... Astrid thought. She kicked a stone out of her way. If she hadn't ran back to tattle to Stoick what she saw, then he wouldn't have gone berserk. As she was deeply immersed in her thoughts, she didn't notice the obnoxious boy who came running to her.

"Astrid!" Snotlout screamed to her, "Astrid, hey! How is the most desirable maiden of Berk doing this day." Astrid stared at him with a condescending look in her eyes. "Worse, now I've seen you." She answered coldly. She ignored him and tried walking away, but he put his body before her. He looked at her with serious eyes. "I am sorry, Astrid, but I thought you would want to see this." He pleaded with her, but she still ignored him. "Astrid, it's about Hiccup." She stiffened, halted in her way because of those words. Slowly she forced words out of her mouth. "Why should I care? He's a traitor." She was walking again. Then she heard him running after her. "Astrid, as much as it pains me to say, he's probably dead, eaten by his dragon or killed while travelling. Please don't insult the memory of my cousin." He said all of it with a grave tone. That was another thing to raise an eyebrow at, Snotlout wasn't usually this calm and serious. She contemplated it, and sighed eventually. "Okay, but only because you look so serious." Immediately he smirked. "I'm always serious, my fair maiden."

The sound of a hand was heard throughout the village.

"Follow me." Snotlout said to her while he was opening the door of the chief's house. Astrid hestitated for a moment, but stepped in the house. It was surprisingly homely, she thought as she was looking around. Just a house. Then she saw it, the stairs that had small worn in footsteps. She swallowed heavily. She saw Snotlout standing on the stairs, urging her with his hands. She followed slowly, and set her boot on the wooden stair with a soft thud. When she stepped into the space that was once Hiccup's, she immediately looked around. Everything was covered in dust and nostalgia. Then she saw it. It was a wall, filled with blueprints and sketches. "Woah," She walked towards it. She alway knew that Hiccup was fucking around with mechanics and smithing, but she never knew he could do this. Unconsciously her hand raised towards one of the sketches, a drawing of his father laughing boisterously behind a mug, and she stroked it. She could see how much effort he had put in this, and the admiration flowed from the picture. Suddenly she felt like she had something in her throat, and it wasn't going away, no matter how many times she tried to swallow it away. "I know, Astrid. He was much more than we thought." She heard from behind her. She saw Snotlout staring at the wall. "Do you regret it?" She asked him. "Regret what?"

"Being so mean to him."

There was a silence.

"Yes, I do. A lot." He said. He walked towards the wall and pointed to one of the sketches, it was one with Snotlout and the rest of the gang pictured on it, all looking seriously... viking. "This is how he saw us. Vikings, strong and proud. And what did we do? I was, am, his cousin and yet I bullied him like he wasn't my own family, and now he's dead. He's gone." He drew in a shuddering breath, and Astrid could see that he wasn't a stupid little boy anymore. But she wasn't a little girl anymore either. Everybody changed the last few years. "Uncle Stoick lets me sometimes come here, he says that he doesn't care. I always come here after a rough day, asking questions to somebody who's gone and probably hates me if he still lives." Snotlout was seeing something she couldn't see in the distance, and his eyes were glassy and hands absentmindly stroking the pictures. "However, I didn't bring you here to whine about how much of a meanie I was and how my cousin is dead. I brought you here for this." He started digging in the pile of the papers on the desk, and Astrid leaned over to see what he was doing. Finally his hands grabbed a leather notebook. He dusted it of, held it for a while, and then stretched his hand out to her.

"Here, read it."

(-)

A/N

Yes, I know that Snot is really out of character is here. But I am getting tired of people portraying him like a dumb lug who hates Hiccup. Yes, he's certainly a dumb and brutish boy, but he actually really cares for Hiccup in a big brother kind of way. If you watch the series you can see him caring for Hiccup, but it's difficult to read the signs of how. I don't mean the kind of like when you can see it clearly, I mean the kind where somebody tries to bully the other out of something for their safety, or bullying the bullies of said person. I think lots of people underestimate Snotlout, and that's why he is in my story stereotypical, but also like my perception on Snot. Btw, we won't get a lot of unserious Snot in long conversations, but in short ones he wil probably be completely stereortypical snotlout.


	5. Chapter 5

Astrid was sitting in the Great Hall, staring at the big tapestries of tales and chiefs long forgotten. She looked down at the chipped wooden table and sighed. She was numbly pushing her mug around on the table, and the only thing that pierced the silence of the room was the wind outside en the gentle scraping of wood upon wood. Hestitantly, she moved her gaze to the soft leather book on her left. She looked at the mug, and back again to the book. She was sitting like this for hours already, wanting to open the little book and read it, but every time her hands took the supple cover, some force made her pull her hand back. Her hand moved towards her mug and brought it to her mouth. She looked at the innocent object on the table and narrowed her eyes. Forceful she slammed her mug on the table, her grip so strong her knuckles turned white.

"Screw it," she mumbled, and slowly her hand started lifting the cover up, and five words greeted her.

 **Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third.**

She swallowed slowly. If she turned that page, she would be reading the thoughts of a person who was so different, he'd betray an entire tribe. Better than that, she would be reading the thoughts of a victim of bullying, the bullying wich she had let happen. Was she really ready to read the thoughts of that person? To become aware of the fact that he _was_ a person? She was already closing the book when a little voice in her head stopped her.

 _Coward._

Astrid let out a shuddering breath, and lifted her shaking hand to her face. Blue eyes were narrowing, sky blue turning ice like in their decision. Without hestitation, she took the book, and slammed it open on the first page of Hiccup's thoughts.

(-)

Hiccup was soaring. He was flying. Well actually Toothless did most of the work, but Hiccup certainly did his share. He lay flat on Tootless' back, in unison with his brother. They were travelling again, because after hearing the news of Berk, he couldn't risk staying in the same village. If someone recognised him, and reported it to one of Berk's contacts, he was so dead. Absentmindly he steered his dragon through the woods. He and Toothless couldn't fly out in the open because of the sun that was shining high and bright in the azure sky. And his dragon wasn't too, ehm, stealthy with his black wings in daylight. He didn't know where to travel next. To the south maybe? He liked that idea, but threw it away quickly when he thought of his escapades in the Vatican, and the moment they had stamped him as a devil. He snorted. As if one god could have created something like Midgard on his own.  
The next place he considered was the east of the continent, he had never been there. But to go through those woods, he was becoming tired even thinking of it. Then he realised it. The land of woods. Holland, it was the ideal base to stay unnoticed but still aware of the news flowing through. Like the last village where he lived, it was quiet and easy to fit into, but there was an influx of travellers there so he could know when news came.

 _And_ , some voice in his head nagged, _so that you can fly faster to Berk if you need to._

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After flying for a day, he came into the first city he thought was acceptable to live in. It had a really weird name for a city that was so full of trade, but it was connected to a series of trade posts throughout the north of the continent, so that was pretty useful. He had finally convinced Toothless that yes, he was coming back and yes, he was coming back with fish. So there he was, searching fish and news. The downfall of his new hideout city was that he couldn't understand a single word of what they were saying. And that said a lot, pun intended, seeing as he could speak a lot of languages. It sounded like his own, but with a lot of choking sounds. The inhabitants of the city looked at the tall man in the weird leather suit, but chose not to say anything. Hiccup himself, lost in thought, was looking at the river on his left.  
Shouting traders, fishers who were yelling that their rotten fish was the best and farmers silently walking by with their hands firmly planted on their money bags. It reminded him of a similar scene, only far up north. Did the Berkians even trade in this time, when it was hard fixing your house up before the next raid. It didn't matter how many times he thought to himself that he couldn't care less, he still thought of them as his family, and he worried. He worried about the next winter, about the food, about his father and even about his fool of a cousin. He raked his fingers angrily through his bronze locks, and didn't see a disaster coming.

 **Crash!**

"Oh, damn it, I am sorry, I didn't-" started the person whom he had bumped into. Then he realised it. He was standing on the docks, full of traders while he was hiding for people who would recognise him. He was cursing himself ten times over for his own stupidity and arrogance. Of course he would be spotted if he kept walking over the docks in every damn city he went. And now he was paying the price. He looked down on the person lying before him with big eyes.

"Hiccup? Master Hiccup?'' He started hestitantly, and while emerald eyes were busy looking for an escape, brown eyes widened at their realisation.

"Master Hiccup! You're alive! Chief Stoick must now of this!" Trader Johann turned around to one of his men. "Quick, tell Chief Stoick that his son has been found!" But when Johann turned to talk to the lanky boy, there was no one there.

(-)

Stoick was standing on the docks. He looked at the burnt down ship, and the few vikings who had survived the useless hunt for the nest. He sighed wearily. He slowly walked towards the village, and with each step he heard something getting louder and louder. When he saw the village and the person within the crowd he glared. He really didn't have the time for Johann's silly stories of his most wonderful adventures.

"Stoick!" The trader began, but the chief held his hand up and shook his head. "No, Johann, I don't have the time for your silly stories." He said it with a bite to his tone, and tried to walk off the square, but a hand held him back. He exhaled slowly, trying to control his anger.  
"Stoick, you're really want to going to hear this one." Gobber said to him.

90909090909

Their chief sat with his face burried in his hands. A muffling sound was heard, and the people were straining to decipher the murmering. Then he lifted his head up, green eyes tired but full of fire.

"Send out an request to all the tribes, all of our alliances and neighbouring countries. Send a search party to Holland. I want my son back. Immediately. I want pictures of him spread out over the entire archipelago and beyond. I'm finding my son, no matter what."

(-)

No, ladies and gentlemen, Hiccup isn't finding a way back to Berk, Berk is going to find its way back to Hiccup. Tadaaaa, it is still cliche, but still, plottwist. At least in my head. But don't trust my head. Yeah, it's better if you don't do that.

By the way, I am going to update more because *drumrolls* my HOLIDAY has started. So yes, Muahhaha, I don't have to do anything except laying in bed and learn for upcoming tests. Welcome in my lazy life. Boom. I really hate this chapter, it is rushed and sloppy and ugh. And I am talking about Nijmegen, seeing as it was part of the Hanze in the middle ages and one of the few cities that flourished with trade. I go there every summer to stay with my relatives to go to the Vier Daagse. Google it, haha! And have a nice day/night or whatever the time in your country is. Also, thanks for all the reviews and follows and favorites and stuff. It's nice to see something else than spam in my mail haha!


	6. Chapter 6

Hiccup was running, pushing his way through the crowd and ignoring the angry calls te people on the streets gave him.  
Up the hill, to the church, down the hill and through the gates.  
He was panting and felt a burn starting in his lungs and legs, but he pushed himself forward. He couldn't afford to lose any time, and he needed to get to Toothless. He was running towards the river wich lay alongside the city and was flowing calmly to some rustic farmlands, and felt the rush of triumph when he heard it. Pounding horsefeet on the ground and shouts.  
"Oh Thor," he mumbled. While he was sprinting towards the woods on the side of the river, he was frantically looking for a way out of this horrible mess. Of course they were chasing him, it was only logical that Johann would alert the cityguards, even though it could be getting really nasty for Hiccup to get out of that mess. He looked behind him and saw that they were only half a kilometre behind him, and were steadily gaining ground. He looked forward again and sighed in relief when he saw the edge of the forest creeping towards him. He was thinking of calling Toothless, the only hestitation being the fact of exposing his dragon and himself as a rider.

 _To Hel with it_ , he thought. He stopped his sprinting over the ground and gathered his breath for the dragon call. The riders were coming closer, the screams of triumph already being heard by him. And then he let it out, and his call rustled up Toothless, and Hiccup heard his answer over the grey lands wich seperated him and his companion. He started grinning, and turned around and just stood there waiting. Waiting for the storm.

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They had reached him and were slowly circling the leather clad man. The four horses were neighing and the men on the animals looked haughtily down upon him. One of them had a shining silver breastplate and a rather big beard wich coverd the lower half of his face. A helmet with bright red plumes on it protected his scalp and the red and black eagle insignia was stamped into his scabbard. Hiccup raised his eyebrows at the pompousness the man emitted, and concluded that he had to be the captain. One of the other soldiers, a young one with blond hair, opened his mouth and the local language came flowing out of his mouth.

"I'm sorry, I didn't get what you said there." Sardonically, Hiccup had looked at the captain when he spoke in the trading language. The captain sniffed haughtily and jumped off his horse with a loud metallic clank.

"We were told to chase you, young man," The man began with a nasal voice, "Do you know why?"

"Because of my irresistable good looks?" At his answer the captain went from being the epitome of calmness to a really uncomfortable looking red shade in the face.  
"We're not joking here, this is serious!" Hiccup gave him a lopsided grin and raised his eyebrows as if to say _so what?_  
"Are you Hiccup Haddock, and if you are, you need to come with us or you will be punished accordingly to the laws of this city!" The sentence ended with a shrill note Hiccup was surprised to hear from a man. He looked half at the rest of the soldiers, and saw that they had already drawn their swords and had surrounded him. He snorted at their complete arrogance and ignorance of the dragon wich had started running on the graslands behind them.

"I would turn around if I were you." He said calmly to them, and the soldiers and captain did it automatically and without a thought. But when they saw the black figure with big wings they screamed and mounted their horses as fast as they could and spurred them on to run as fast as they could. Slowly the dragon halted next to him. The green-eyed man looked at his dragon and shrugged.

"Well, that went easier than I thought it would."

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The village was talking. Rumours were flying around and the people were excited at the first strand of news wich looked even for a little bit good. The news that their heir had been found was walking throughout the village like a fire burning bright, and for the first time in years, the people of Berk were excited. They hadn't had a raid for almost ten days, and their long lost Hiccup was found. Even their chief wasn't insisting on another nest hunt. The muddy streets and wooden houses were filled with excited Vikings and everybody was already making things presentable for when their heir would return.

Desperate people in desperate times they were, they had forgotten the betrayal of their heir that one day, many years ago. They had forgotten their cruel words to him, and they had forgotten how they had shunned him for his whole life. All because they were happy to have one last strand of hope.

Surely their heir couldn't be with a dragon out of his own will, could he? Surely he was under some strange kind of dragon magic and being beinfluenced by that heathen beast.

And so Berk was readying itself for the arrival of their heir.

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Astrid was walking for a while. The wind was blowing coldy on her face, like whispy cold fingers touching her cheecks and brushing her hair aside. Absentmindly she swung her axe back and forth, and before she knew it, she gazed upon the place she was walking to. The greyish tints of the building and the iron net above it felt nostalgic, and slowly she walked further and pushed the doors open. Her leather boots scuffed over the cracks of the arena, until she arrived at a specific spot on the ground. Small holes from arrows and spears were gathered in one spot together with shallow gashes from swords and deep cuts from heavy battleaxes. Slowly her own axe slipped one the ground, and the clank was hollowly echoed in the arena. She kneeled down and dragged her finger slowly on the one spot wich was clean. It couldn't have harboured more than a whisp of a human, and all the weapons seemed to have carefully chosen not to target that special area. She let out a shaky breath and her hands were moving spastically over that one spot.

 _Astrid, if something... goes wrong, just make sure they don't find Toothless._

The voice wich had spoken this sentence bounced around in her head, the slightly nasal tone causing the first sob wich tore itself violently from her body. He had trusted her. He could have let his dragon kill her with that awful purple fire, but he had stopped it. He put his trust in her, the first person who knew his secret. And for return, she betrayed that trust and ran to Stoick. When he chose to fly away forever, he changed his mind halfway and returned just before she left the woods. Because he still believed that he could change her mind. But instead she deceived him, convinced him that she wouldn't tell, that when he would stand in the arena and told everybody his secret, they would understand. And her plan had worked. When he called for his dragon all Hel broke loose. She thought that they could trap the dragon in the arena, get the beast's devious spell out of his body and ultimately kill the creature. But instead, it got loose. And when the boy with the green eyes and thin body sat upon it, and gazed down on her with burning rage and distrust. The last thing he had ever said to her, in a voice burning with choked up hurt and rage, came back to her.

 _I'll never trust anybody again, thanks to you, Astrid._

She curled up and let the cold in.

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"Toothless, fuck off." Hiccup said to his dragon. Toothless looked offended at him and threw some more water at him. Hiccup opened one eye and glared at his best friend. "Thank you for nothing, you useless reptile!"

They had flown for two days before they stumbled upon this spot, it was a lake hidden in the green thickets of the forest, and far away from any civilisation. After the escape from the guards of the city, he had been thinking about his strategy, what he should do next. He and Toothless, who had been hiding in a forest nearby, had been safe for at least a day, and in that day Hiccup had thought about what he should do. Word would surely have arrived at Berk by then because Johann had messengers in every city and news would have arrived quick. He couldn't stay any longer in one place. But he couldn't flee either, because that would be just awfully unfortunate. So, after a day of pondering, Hiccup had decided to do something outrageous, something daring, and something incredibly stupid. He would go to Berk, convince them that he was evil and then he would be peacefully on his way again. It was a gamble, but he would gladly take it than that he should be living in hiding for the rest of his life.

And so they had at last came here, the last stop before they would come to Berk. It was high on the island west of France and the shore of Europe, and the weather was cold and harsh. The grey mountains surrounded him somberly, and the brown stalks of tough grass were hidden between shrubs and trees. It all had a forboding nature, and Hiccup already dreaded going to his former home. He looked to his dragon again, who was now occupied with thoroughly destroying the evenness of the sand on the shore of the lake. Hiccup turned over and hugged his blankets closer to him. He breathed the cold air in and slowly out, and went to sleep.

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He was checking everything double. He had his sword, his journal, his map, his compass, his everything. But he still checked again, and just to be sure, another time. Sighing he closed his leather satchel and strapped it onto Toothless, who was watching him with concerned eyes. Toothless warbled softly at him.

"I...I'm alright bud. It's okay." He grinned halfly at his dragon who was judging him with silent eyes, but eventually gave the dragon equivalent of a sigh and nudged him to climb on. Hiccup threw himself on Toothless, and everything clicked into place. He looked behind him to see if the prosthetic was moving accordingly, and sighed when he saw that it was flawless. He closed his eyes, and then opened them, emerald green eyes looking determinedly through strands of bronze hair.

"Let's go, bud."

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Hiccup felt the change in the air, felt the forboding nature. He straightened up. "This is it, Toothless. Get ready." Toothless answered affirmatively with a snarl. Hiccup took his helmet from it's designated place on the back of his saddle , and put it over his head. They were flying through the grey clouds, and slowly descended. When they broke through the grey blanket and into the open air he saw a hauntingly familiar silhoutte of an island. Dark blue waters surrounded it, and the peaks and valleys were filled with grass and woods, and when he looked closer, he saw the small Viking village on the edge of the island. He narrowed his eyes at it, and a rush of anger and hurt burned through his body, and he felt the adrenalin in his veins. He didn't notice the scowl taking place on his face, marring his features behind his mask. He spurred Toothless to go down faster. He knew it was noon.

They were slowly gaining speed.

At noon, everybody was on the market.

They morphed into a fast moving black smudge.

So, for a bigger impact, he should land now.

The village was already coming into sharp detail.

The Vikings of Berk were all gathered together on the market, discussing the news and prices of food. Hiccup and Toothless were cutting through the air.  
The people noticed them, and everybody huddled together, prepared with their weapons. They would land on hostile soil in a few seconds now. Hiccup steered Toothless toward a little hill with a stone wall in it, nearby the smithy. They landed with a hard thud, and Toothless tucked his wings in. The people on the market had only just then noticed the tall and lean figure on the dragon, and stood with bated breath. One person pushed herself forward, blond hair swinging behind her. Cursing she pushed through the crowd, and saw him.

He was lean, very lean, but Astrid's eyes noticed that he definitely had hidden muscles. Clad completely in a weird black and green suit and a helmet, she hadn't have the faintest of who he was. And then she noticed the dragon. Her axe fell.

"It can't be..." she started softly, not even noticing that the village was beginning to stare at her. She looked into the hateful, toxic green eyes of the dragon, and slowly dragged her gaze back to the figure.

"Oh Gods," She choked out. But before she could continue her sentence she was stopped by the person standing on the hill. He had started laughing, and eventough the sound was muffled by his helmet, it made everyone shiver. Slowly he pulled his sword, and suddenly it was aflame. Everybody sprung into action, but when they readied themselves to jump on him, the dragon behind him threatened them silently with the purple sheen of a plasma blast barely held back.

"Hello, Berkians." the crowd frowned, confused at the familiar voice, but Astrid, Snotlout, Fishlegs and the twins knew exactly who it was. They had heard that voice making brave sarcastic comebacks just a few years ago, only difference being the deepening of it.  
"I am sure you all have missed me-"

Before he could continue, a Viking in the front of the crowd said with blazing eyes:

"Why would we miss somebody we have never met?" The rider threw his head back and laughed.

"I see suddenly why I hate you guys," Astrid and Snotlout looked at eachother with somber looks. "You wouldn't know the outcast of the village, whom you have shunned for years, even when he stands right before you." The crowd broke out in whispers, but silenced immediately when the rider slowly moved his hand up to his helmet. He pushed it slowly off, and threw it down on the ground before the village. They were silent, looking with stunned eyes at the handsome man before them, slowly realising who he was.

"Hiccup!" Astrid moved unconsciously forward to him but stopped when he coldy spoke to her. "Stop, you lying bitch." The whole village was shocked at hearing Hiccup swearing so bitterly. Astrid felt a pang of hurt and regret. Hiccup jumped of the hill and looked around the marketplace. He snorted.

"I see you guys still have a little dragon problem." The crowd just watched him, silenced by his overwhelming and surprising presence. He walked over the stones and dragged his flaming sword slowly over the ground. They flinched at the threatening sight. The boy they knew from three years ago certainly wasn't weak anymore. When they looked at his face with burning green eyes they knew that he was dangerous. Slowly he walked towards the crowd and stopped before Astrid. Her blue eyes were wide open and her shoulders hang slack. She looked at his face, noting the high cheekbones, strong jaw, straight nose and dusting of freckles. Even his hair was completely different, mussed up and a darker shade of bronze than it was before. But the one thing that had really changed was his gaze. Two emerald green eyes looked at her, burning with hate, malice and dark amusement. She jumped when he sheathed his sword and circled her, his dragon slowly prowling towards everybody. She frantically looked around, hoping that their chief was nearby, and when she saw nothing she sprung into action and reached out to her axe. She hadn't even taken a step when Hiccup already held her in a strong grip. He chuckled next to her ear.

"Let's not betray me again, shall we, Astrid. I held back once already, don't make me change my mind." She shivered but hissed defiantly at him.

"I just did my duty. I needed to put you into that trap." He scoffed, and Astrid continued hysterically. Meanwhile the village just stood watching at the boy and the girl.

"That dragon! He is controlling you, before you know it he'll-"

"He'll do _what_ , Astrid? Kill me? He could have done that plenty times already now. _Betray_ me? He'd never do that, because, Astrid, he trusts me and I trust him." Looking at the village and raising his voice, Hiccup continued. "Dragons are quite the opposite of Vikings, actually. Loyal, brave and intelligent. For every bad Viking are a hundred good dragons. And that's saying something, you evil sons of bitches." Astrid tried tugging herself loose out of hist death grip, but his arms clamped down on her even harder.

Snotlout was looking with conflict at his cousin. That couldn't be Hiccup. Hiccup who had helped him learning how to write when they were just four. The weakling who he had bullied for years. For Odin's sake, he was stronger than Astrid, their fiercest and most powerful warrior!

"You're delusional!" He screamed at Hiccup, "Dragons are the evil here! Look around you! They are savage! Just leave that dragon, and maybe you can come home!"

Snotlout looked hopeful up at his cousin, but all his hope was crushed when Hiccup started laughing darkly. He burried his face in Astrid's hair and shook his head in disbelief. His body was shaking with tremors from his laughing. Then he lifted his head and started again.

"I was your heir. I was your cousin. I was your Thordamned _family_ ," He hissed,  
"And all you did, all the village did, was shun me. Because I wasn't _strong_. Because I wasn't Viking enough. Thank Thor I am no Viking." He looked right at everybody, and they felt shivers down their spine at the green fire of it.  
"Did you ever think about me when you'd beat me down, verbally or even physically? Of course you didn't, I was the weakling, _the hiccup_ , and that justified your actions." He fell silent for a moment, and Astrid felt him breathe deeply in and out.

"Well, I'm no weakling anymore, nor a hiccup and certainly _not_ your family, Snotlout." He snapped his fingers at his dragon, and Toothless lit the first building on fire. The Vikings jostled and tried to attack, but Hiccup held a dagger against Astrid's throat. They all froze.

"I'm going to burn you down, like you did with me. You can't do anything about it, or I will cut Astrid's pretty little neck and then one of you will be next." The crowd stood silenced, and when Hiccup pointedly looked at their weapons and shook his own, they dropped them all. Toothless was already at his eight building and the fire reflected in the eyes of Hiccup.

"But, you can also stop chasing me. I won't ever come back again, and won't kill anybody from the Isle of Berk on my travels. Just. Leave. Me. _Alone_." The crowd stood silenced, and nobody dared to move against the demonic boy. And then Astrid's eyes widenend when she saw another pair of flaming green eyes.

"Hiccup Horrendous Haddock!" The voice thundered over the square. Hiccup let Astrid fall on the ground, clutching at her neck and panting. He smiled wildly.

"Well, hello dad."

 **A/N**

 **Sorry. I am horrible with updating. I just had my testweek after the holidays, and I sort of forgot to write. Yes um yeah. Here's angry Hiccup.**

 **This disclaimer will be valid for the rest of this story, I don't own HTTYD nor it's characters.**


	7. Chapter 7

The silence on the square lay heavily in the air, and nobody dared to say anything. Two persons were in the circle of Vikings, facing eachother with determined faces, one with a heavy scowl and the other with a wild smile and a maniacal glint in his eyes. Stoick the Vast looked at his son with desperate and angry eyes.

"Son..." Mechanically he took a step forward and let his sword fall. Hiccup chuckled and looked down, but when he raised his head he was shaking it.  
"That wasn't what you said a few years ago, _dad_." His voice was filled with poison, and the maniacal grin was replaced with an angry sneer wich marred his features. He couldn't believe that after all those years that stupid man still had the audacity to call him 'son'. Anger started seeping in his bones, making him see red. His father had hated him, he probably still did. He felt Toothless looking worriedly at him, but he still took that one step forward.

"Son, Hiccup, I remember and I feel remorse for it. Why... Why don't you just throw the sword away, son?" The chief was pleading desperately with him, still seeing a glimpse of the old Hiccup in those burning eyes full with hate. _He_ did it. He drove him into the clutches of that cruel dragon.

"You don't feel remorse. You haven't got the right to even call me a son, you forfeited that when you disowned me in front of the entire village." Hiccup was chuckling like a lunatic throughout the sentence, and the village stood watching it with horror. They couldn't even see how the tall man in front of them was the same person as the lanky boy from a few years back.

"So-... Hiccup, please, come back. Please, I- I can't afford to...-" His voice broke. The mighty and strong chief stood crying, looking at the last of his family, desperate for it, not willing to lose any more.

"Can't afford to what? Humor me, maybe you will give me a good laugh." Hiccup felt like laughing and crying, and was breathing erratically. He didn't feel like himself, he just felt the sting of being disowned and betrayal from years ago. He was trying to be rational, trying not to let Toothless shoot everyone down, trying not to go berserk and slay everyone with Inferno. He shouldn't have come, he thought, he was losing control. But now he was spewing angry words at his old home, he couldn't stop his feelings being finally verbalized after all those years of shame and hopelessness.

"You disowned me, you hated me for all my life. You made me feel like I was unworthy of love, of friendship of fucking _respect_!" He hissed, and Stoick tried to answer, looking at him with dull and pained eyes but Hiccup continued.  
"All those years... You say you regret the decision to disown me, but do you regret the years of setting impossible high expectations?"

"I was just trying to make you strong, son!" Stoick screamed with tears streaming down his face. Astrid looked at them from the ground, still grasping at her throat, seeing the feelings and tension running high between the two Haddocks.

"I didn't want to feel strong! I wanted to feel like I was worthy of my father! That's all I ever wanted! And you just made me feel like I wouldn't ever be enough!" Now Hiccup was crying too, and the people around the men watched with clenched hearts and clenched fists. Snotlout was standing close, slowly seeing the conversation detoriate into a conversation where Hiccup's threats didn't mean a thing, but a conversation with things what really needed to be said. Maybe, he hestitantly thought, is this exactly what we need.

"I was wrong! I was so, so wrong! I see that now son, but just please come back to your home and leave that ridiculous dragon! We are your family!" Stoick was still crying and his sentence ended hysterically. Hiccup looked down again. Silence fell, and slowly, very slowly Hiccup's shoulders started to shake. His hand with his sword twitched and he retracted his sword. He looked up, and everybody was shocked at his face. Tears were streaming down over pale cheeks in thick rivulets, but there was a haunting grin playing around his mouth.

"I never had a family. I had a chief, I had bullies, I had a boss and I had an empty and cold house to live in. This isn't my home. You aren't my family." The wary man before him felt daggers pierce his heart at the words that flowed from his sons mouth, and it sunk into his shoes when he heart the conviction in it. He made his son believe for his entire life that he didn't want him, and now it was too late. The flames around the square flared up and surrounded the back of the semi-circle. Hiccup looked him straight in the eye, surrounded by fire. Everybody stood breathlessly watching at the scene unfolding before their eyes. Nobody noticed Astrid standing up, nor how Hiccup clicked at a button on his sword and how the flaming blade emerged.

 _Do it_ , a voice in his head said, _they hate you, shunned you, hurt you. Hurt them back._ Hiccup didn't see reason anymore, a red haze covered his eyes. Nobody loved him, they only saw him as a monster. He was so caught up in his feelings, all the hurt of fifteen years streaming back in his body, begging to be released. He let out a hoarse scream and had already lifted his arm when he felt a strange resistance. He tried to move his lifted arm, ready to strike, but the force held him back. He felt a harsh pinch at the flesh between his thumb and finger and he let the sword drop. Somebody moved his arm down, and two hands held his face. The red dissapeared from his vision and then he realised what he was doing. Confused he looked down, and saw Astrid looking at him with big blue eyes. She gave a small smile.

"Oh my Thor..." He whispered, and he looked over her head at his father, seeing him looking back with wet eyes. Numbly he moved his eyes to the right of his father and saw Gobber standing there, with a quivering chin. He saw the twins, saw Fishlegs and saw Snotlout looking at him with a smile and two teary eyes. He felt his heart clench. This wasn't who he was, he didn't lose control or try to kill anybody. He saw Toothless standing aside from the crowd with big eyes. He slowly turned around and saw houses burning. What had he done? A sob wrecked his body. He looked down again at Astrid and slowly pushed her away. He looked at his hands and saw that they were shaking wildy.

"What did I do?!" He was half screaming. He almost killed everybody, he was so controlled by his feelings he didn't notice the gravity of his actions. He started crying loudly, like a kid who had lost his parents. Toothless barreled his way through the stunned people and caught Hiccup before he could fall down on the ground. Loud wails tore themselves from Hiccup's body and cut through the silence of the square.

"Oh, son... What did we do?" Stoick whispered, and then walked slowly to his son. He looked suspisciously at the dragon holding his son up, but still came closer. He gathered the lean body of the boy in his arms and hugged him. They were both crying, and the village was stunned by the sight of the two strong men completely breaking down in front of them.

Hiccup was sobbing, but he still tried to ask the question he desperately wanted to ask, the question wich would make a descision to stay or to go.

"Dad, would you still accept me as your son after all this?" He looked up with wet forest green eyes.

"Of course, son, I will always accept you." Slowly Hiccup exhaled, and pulled himself away. He breathed shakily in and out for a few times, and then directed his eyes at the crowd. They moved back when they saw his attention was back at them. He flinched at the fear he'd inspired.

"The dragons aren't our enemies." He started.

"Oh gods, not _that_ again." Snotlout muttered softly.

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The Vikings were muttering in the Mead Hall, being called over yet again for an emergency meeting about dragons. They were casting suspiscious looks at the black dragon when he entered through the big wooden doors, followed by his rider. Slowly they watched the lithe boy walking towards the roaring fire, where his father was already waiting for him. Solemny Hiccup stopped next at him and looked at the inhabitants of Berk.

"Talk." Was the only word Stoick said.

"The dragons aren't evil," scoffs were heard at that. "I have travelled wide and far, from our northern lands to the southern edges of the continent, and never have I ever seen a dragon that attacked humans without feeling threatened. They are intelligent and kind creatures."

The chief sighed. "That's nice son, but how would you prove it? How do you explain the actions of the dragons here?"

"Actually, you've got to see it before you believe it. The nearby Nest is being controlled by a queen, from the other nests that I have seen, every one has a queen. The difference here is, that this queen isn't providing nor protecting the nest. She is hurting them, and forcing them to raid the islands in this archipelago. If they don't, they get eaten." Hiccup explained it all dryly, and Astrid stepped forward when the village started mumbling at his decleration, clearly not believing it.

"He's right." Astrid said, "He's right, because he took me on a flight three years ago, and we ended up at the nest. I saw how the queen ate a Gronckle because it hadn't brought enough food back." The crowd was muttering angrily at that, offended by the fact that Astrid had never told them that they had already found the Nest. People started slowly clamouring that she had betrayed Berk, and people were already grasping at their weapons. She swallowed heavily and raised her voice again.

"After that, I betrayed Hiccup by letting him believe that he had a chance to make you see reason. Please, right my wrongs, and give him that chance."

 **A/N**

 **So yeah, I wrote a chapter again because I had the time. Thank you all for following me and giving me building criticism and compliments, I truly appreciate it. And also, silent readers, thank you for reading. This is just a small chapter, but it is actually quite critical for the flow of the story, and I had a hard time writing it because of the change from evil Hiccup to the good one. I really didn't want to make it unrealistic or sappy, but is still kind of happened, hahaha XD.**

 **By the way, the almost schizophrenic things Hiccup is thinking are actually quite normal with bullied victims. Often they are strong, but if the hurt isn't properly vented they can snap, and then such things happen. Like Stalin, you know, that Russian dude who went complete paranoid and shit after he was bullied for the first years of his life. Bullied victims don't always snap because of family, of friends they gain when they get older or get away. But this is Hiccup, his only friend being Toothless, while he was completely alone on his travels, so he was bound to snap. By the way, that thumb pinch thing works, if you think somebody is doing something bad like bullying, just pinch there really hard. It hurts like a bitch.**


	8. Chapter 8

The following day Hiccup felt some hostility directed at him. Well, to be honest, a lot of hostility. He sighed, of course he had seen it coming but it still felt unsettling when some Vikings spit at the ground when he walked past them or hissed insults at him. After a lot of discussion the villagers had given him a chance to prove himself and slay the queen. It was a big burden to carry, and Hiccup wasn't that pumped up to kill something that was as big as a mountain. He kicked a pebble out of his way, and when someone called out to him and only to insult him, he lost it.

"Shut up!" He snarled at the burly brunet Viking. The Viking sniffed at him, and continued on his way to wherever, giving a wary look at the dragon walking next to the boy.

Toothless nudged him comfortingly and gave him a big grin. Hiccup smiled, at least he had one friend to count on in this predicament. He walked further along the dirt road and when he arrived at his intented destination he hestitated a little. He looked at the forge and felt a lump in his throat. He had hurt his village a lot, but the one person he really didn't want to hurt was Gobber. But then he looked down at Toothless' tail again, and when he saw how worn out the prosthetic was he steeled himself and walked inside the forge.

He looked around and smiled a bit when he saw it hadn't changed a bit. It was hot, shady and really clouded with fumes of the fires. He looked down at a little corner on the left, beneath one of the wooden ledges where the villagers laid their weapons in times when the arms needed to be repaired. He kneeled down and swept his hand over the big gash in the stone floor and chuckled. It was the first thing he dropped in the smithy, and he remembered what Gobber had said to him when his ten year old self was upset over it.

 _Calm down, lad, I'm sure you'll be a wonderful blacksmith in time so don't panic over a fallen piece of iron. Get to work._

"I didn't expect you to be so big when I'd see you again." A voice rang out from behind him. Hiccup startled and banged his head at the ledge.

"Ow! Gods!" He muttered while rubbing over his head and turning around. He saw the big blacksmith grinning at him, his false tooth poking out from his mouth and blonde mustache still knotted the same way as years ago.  
"Well, it's good to see that your clumsiness remained." Hiccup scoffed at it. He grinned lopsided at Gobber and scratched his head.  
"Look, Gobber, a-about yesterday...-" His sentence was cut off by Gobber hugging him tightly. He felt tears dripping on his neck, and he was frozen in shock, hands still hanging limply by his sides. Slowly he reacted to the tight hug and wrapped his arms slowly around the blacksmith. He felt him giving a squeeze.

"Hiccup," He said slowly while he pushed Hiccup away by his shoulders, "Never apologize for that. Even if you'd never ran away something like that was bound to happen. We were all a bunch of muttonheads." He looked sternly at Hiccup. "Understood?" Hiccup nodded slowly. Gobber turned around, and walked away.

"Well, don't just stand there, lad, get to work." Hiccup watched stunned at the back of the Viking in front of him, but then he walked with a smile to one of the anvils and picked up a hammer.

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 _Clang. Clang. Clang._

Hiccup was completely focused on the sword laying on the anvil before him, iron red hot and sparks were flying off of it. He inhaled, and let his hammer fall strongly down on the bent metal. He'd been in the forge for hours now, but he didn't falter for a minute. He just kept on smithing in the forge. Gobber had asked him why, but Hiccup had just answered with a laugh and saying that he had missed it. But the green-eyed boy knew the real reason. He was repairing all the weapons of the village out of guilt. He had just left them for years, so the least he could do was fix their broken arms. Some part of him knew that it was ridiculous and that he didn't owe them that much, but he did it nonetheless. He felt sweat trickling down his brow and he wiped away with a sigh. His muscles burned and the heat of the fire was sweltering. He took of his apron and took his tunic off. He had ditched his riding clothes a few hours earlier and it felt really weird to wear something as simple as a tunic after months of wearing tight leather. But now the forge ran so hot he had to lose the tunic too. He tied the leather apron around his waist again and picked up the hammer again and gripped the sword with his free hand. The sword had been bent in a freak accident with the twins, and to make a long story short, the owner hadn't been happy. After a few seconds he was completely emmersed in his work again.

"Hey, Hiccup." He startled and nearly slammed the hammer on his fingers. He threw his hammer angry down and turned around, only to be greeted with the sight of the twins standing in front of him. He sighed irritated. Only the twins would disturb somebody doing risky work. Ruffnut was leaning on a wooden ledge with one arm tucked under her chin and Tuffnut was standing with crossed arms and a wide grin.

"Hey, guys." Hiccup said wearily while stealthily looking around for sharp things around the twins. Thor knows what would happen if they had sharp objects within grabbing distance. Ruffnut jumped over the ledge and Tuffnut simply through the dooropening. Hiccup looked suspiscously at them. Ruffnut walked up to him and said with a sultry voice:

"My, you have grown up." Hiccup felt half threathened and half disgusted. "So, tell me how did you tame that dragon of yours?" Tuffnut asked. Then Hiccup understood. He looked at them with raised eyebrows.

"You want me to learn you how to train dragons?"

"Yes," He heard more voices coming from behind. He turned around and saw Snotlout, Fishlegs and Astrid looking at him.

"We'd really like that." Hiccup blinked and took off his apron, ignoring the stares of his peers. He shrugged on his tunic and pulled his hand through his hair.

"Well, follow me then."

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He walked up to the arena, hearing the group behind him shuffle nervously around. He snorted at the worried sounds they made. He stroked Toothless head for a moment and then turned around while pulling at the lever of the doors. The gate opened with rattling sounds and finished with a loud metallic clank. He smiled almost sadistically at the teens in front of him. They all looked at him like he was going to hurt them. He gestured for them to follow him and then he walked inside the grey arena. Toothless started to run circles in the arena, tail wagging excitedly. Hiccup smiled, even his dragon was looking forward to the group stumbling around with the dragons. He let out a chuckle. The teenagers looked at him with suspiscious eyes, half expecting him to laugh like a psychopath.

"Are you sure you want to?" He said with a low voice. "Once you bond with a dragon, you can't betray them, and you have to care for them. They'll be your friends. But the road won't be easy. So I ask again, are you sure?" The teenagers still stood resolutely. He grinned and rubbed his hands together. He gestured Toothless to come to him, and he climbed in the saddle.

"Well, let's begin then." Then he patted his dragon on the side of his head and whispered one word. "Shoot." Four streaks of purple, and then the locks of the cages were loose.

"Ehm, Hiccup, I-I'm not so sure if we should let them out of their cages?" Snotlout said with a nervous laugh. Hiccup only shook his head. "I believe in learning on the job." _Odin,_ he thought, _now I understand why Gobber likes to teach._

The dragons came out of their cages, eyes darting around and smoke coming out of their noses and mouths. The group of Vikings behind him were standing afraid behind him. He snorted. He jumped off of Toothless.

"Watch and learn." He grabbed the hilt of his sword, and the flaming blade appeared. The dragons stopped panicking and looked hypnotised at the sword Hiccup slowly was moving around. After he had them lined up, he retracted it and slowly reached out to the Nightmare. Everybody was watching stunned at how calm the dragon was around Hiccup, and were even more so when they saw how the dragon closed it's eyes and slowly pushed it's nose into the rider's outstretched hand. He repeated the move with the rest of the dragons and smiled when he was done. He took a step back, and he felt how his expression changed when realisation dawned upon him. He started to shake and clenched his fists. He turned sharply around and glared at the teens. They all stepped back at his venomous look he gave them. He closed his eyes while trying to keep his cool.

"You... You guys, are these the dragons from a few years back?" He exhaled the sentence shaking with anger. He opened his eyes and the group recoiled at the green fire in it. Nobody could answer him. " _Answer me!_ " He yelled at them.

"Yes." Hiccup pinched the bridge of his nose and then looked at Astrid, the only one who could answer him.

"Why are they still alive?"

"After you left, Stoick didn't want anybody to take the honour of killing the Nightmare, and they all survived the last few years." Hiccup felt sadness coming upon him. He felt his heart clench. He was such a mess, and was running hot and cold. He stood there, only breathing in and out, for at least five minutes and then he talked again.

"Snotlout, come here." The boy in question looked at him with wide eyes. "I'm not going to hurt you, Snotlout." He sighed out. Slowly the Viking approached him. Hiccup looked at the Nightmare in front of him, and put his hand on his nose again. He waved his cousin over, and slowly the boy walked towards him. Hiccup grabbed his hand.

"H-Hey what are you-" The dragon snorted nervously. Hiccup shushed him and pulled his hand closer, and slowly put it on the nose of the dragon, and then pulled his own hand away. Snotlout exhaled harshly and laughed hestitantly and looked up at his cousin with sparkling eyes, and when he saw the green ones smile back at him he looked down to the dragon. He smiled.

00000000000000000000

Hiccup sighed and stretched his arms yawning. He scratched his head and looked down at his dragon.

"We did good today, bud." Toothless snorted at him as if he was saying I already knew that. The bronze haired boy smiled when he thought back at how the Vikings and dragons had bonded with eachother. It was good to see, and it lessened his anger a lot. Odin knew he needed that. He was making his way to the cove when he heard somebody walking towards him.

"Hiccup, son." He flinched, and turned around. Since the gathering he had avoided his dad and he'd left immediately to the cove to get a good night of rest, and continued avoiding the chief the next day too.

"Hi, dad, well I was just going to sleep, so, erm, yep, I'll b-be going now." He saw his dad looking sadly at him, and he felt depressed knowing his dad felt so down. The main reason why he was avoiding his dad was so he wouldn't have to see the sadness and disappointment that had haunted him for his whole life.

"You can sleep home too, son, i-if you'd like that." Hiccup looked with unbelief at Stoick the Vast, who was now shuffling around and wringing his hands. Hiccup shuffled around and raked his hand through his hair. The lanky boy looked up to his father with a shy smile.

"Sure I'd like that."

The father smiled back.

Maybe they weren't completely lost.

 **A/N**

 **Hey guys, we are over the fifty followers. Holy. Hoooooly shit! I know I'm a really careless author, and that the plot is unrealistic and hurried as fuck. But still, I am veerrrrryy happy to know that people read it. I hope I can update tomorrow, but one of my best friends' birthday is near so I need to prepare for that too.**


	9. Chapter 9

_A month later..._

"Damnit, Snotlout!" Screamed Hiccup loudly at his cousin. The culprit himself looked sheepishly back at Hiccup. He grinned half-heartedly back at the heir, who had narrowed his eyes and was glaring venomously.  
''Y'know, it wasn't actually my fault, if Astrid here..." Snotlout didn't get the chance to finish his sentence, because he was interrupted with a elbow in his stomach. Astrid looked down at the dark haired boy and sniffed indignantly.  
"My fault? Sorry Snotlout, but if you hadn't been so stupid to ignore the thordamned rules and strategies, we wouldn't have to save your muttonhead ass from the Outcasts!" She kicked him again for good measure and walked calmly away. Stormfly squawked at Snotlout with equal fury and hopped after her rider. Hiccup sighed and looked hopelessly at his cousin. He looked guiltily back at him, his dragon looking just as angry as the rest of the riders. Well, except for the twins, who were playing rather... agressively with their dragon.

"You know, Snotlout, we have rules and strategy for a reason, you know. Like not being killed by a dragon so big she could eat Berk and an armada of angry Berserkers. We really can't have you making reckless moves and putting the rest in danger." Fishlegs was nodding vehemently with their leader's statement. The guilty one in question, however, didn't look as quite convinced as they were.

"Pft, danger, schmanger. Me and Hookfang could've taken them on our own. That would learn them not to mess with Berk!" Blue eyes glinting proudly and chest puffing out, he continued. "Your plan was just stupid Hiccup. You should've let me take the lead, and then we would just..." Before he could finish his sentence, a rough voice interrupted him.  
"You would've been killed if not for Astrid. Don't get ahead of yourself. Remember, it is not only you whom you are putting in danger, but also your dragon who trusts you. What would you do if Hookfang got captured? Or worse, killed?" Emerald green eyes glaring angrily made Snotlout keep his tongue. Hiccup turned around, giving him a view of nothing but a leather clad back. He waved nonchalantly with his arm.

"If I were you, I'd better start cleaning. It's your turn today." And with that, Hiccup and the rest of the riders, with exception of Snotlout, left the Arena.

001010101010101010101001

After the argument Hiccup went to the cove with Toothless. The black dragon and his rider flew silently and stealthily to the cove. Hiccup was lost in thought. It had already been a month, and the time to take on the Queen was coming closer and closer. He was so stressed, he sometimes couldn't even think rationally anymore. And then all the trouble with the riders and their strategies, the Outcasts and certainly not to forget the Berserkers...  
Sometimes he wondered why he wouldn't just fly off like he did all those years ago and just forget about this little strip of land. But there were just too many things tying him down and clipping his wings. He couldn't leave just when things were starting to get better, when he'd gotten emotional. Sometimes it was just easier to be an emotionless dick with a helmet while drinking and fucking his way through the world.

Meanwhile Toothless had landed in the cove. Hiccup slid off his back and walked towards the edge of the lake and just threw himself on the grass that grew unevenly over some patches with sand. He looked up to the rose coloured sky and was thinking like a true angsty teenager when something interrupted his brooding time. Something being a certain black dragon with a missing tail fin. Who was throwing water over him. Slowly Hiccup started to smirk, and then he sat up and looked seriously at his friend who was looking at him with a challenging look. He raised an eyebrow.

"So, you think you can beat me?" He asked skeptically. The dragon snorted proudly back at him and threw some extra water over him with a wing, as if he was saying: _bring it on._

"Well," Hiccup sighed, looking dramatically at the ground while shaking his head. "Don't forget, you asked for it."

TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT

Astrid was flying over the woods when she saw the cove. Usually it was just empty, a lake surrounded by rock walls and tranquility. But this time however, the silvery surface of the water was heavily disturbed by a black dragon and a scrawny young man. Only one pair on Berk fit that description. Stormfly recognised them too, and squawked happily.  
"Yeah girl, I spotted them too. Let's see what they're doing." And with that they flew down to the cove.

They landed on one of the far edges of the cove, and they hadn't been seen yet. Why they were moving silently, Astrid didn't know. But she didn't want to impose on the weird display of friendship and intimacy before her. She got a first row experience on the Hiccup that wasn't depressed or weighed down by responsibilities and guilt. It was strangely... warming. She and Stormfly were perched behind a rock, and before her dragon could run happily to the boy and the other dragon, she stopped her. Stormfly looked questioningly back at her. The blonde girl just shushed and shook her head.

Astrid slowly climbed up the rock, and peeked carefully over it to get a better view. Hiccup and Toothless were splashing eachother while running around in the shallow parts of the lake. Even she could see Toothless was winning by far, and it seemed Hiccup thought so too. But instead of giving up he splashed a big wave of water at the black dragon and did something that had Astrid choked up. Blue eyes widened and her cheeks were becoming red. Oh Thor, she thought.  
Hiccup was stripping his top half. And he wasn't as scrawny as he looked like, but he wasn't viking-like either. But there was a wiry strenght in his frame, muscles bunched up beneath smooth, freckled skin and... she needed to get out of here. Quick. Hastily she slid down the rock, but went down way too fast and she tore her skin on her hands. The one day she chose not to wear wrappings around her wrists and hands. She couldn't stop the small yelp that escaped her throat and quickly crouched down behind the rock, hands clutched to her chest and hoping Hiccup and Toothless hadn't heard it. Stormfly was busy with a bird, so if even her own dragon hadn't noticed, surely...  
"Astrid?" She heard someone above her say. Her eyes flew open and her heart started pounding. Slowly she looked up and saw Hiccup staring down curiously with big, big, green eyes... _No! Bad Astrid!_  
"Hey, Hiccup." She chuckled awkwardly while standing up. _Please have a shirt on_ , she thought. She walked around the rock, hoping that the gods had granted her that one favour but was disappointed when she saw her prayers were unanswered. She felt her face becoming even redder.  
"Astrid, what in Hel's name are you doing...- Wait, are you bleeding? Come here, let me see." She started panicking and was already shaking her head vehemently and walking slowly backwards.

"No, no. It's nothing, no need to..." But before she could finish her sentence she was cut off. The boy had grasped her hands and was turning them around and tutting angrily. Pale hands were covered in blood and had a lot of cuts and scrapes, some fillled with gravel and dust.  
"You really should watch out, Astrid. These look like they are going to be there for a while." Hiccup was already dragging her by her shoulder to his bags, wich he had thrown down along with Toothless's saddle. He released her and started rummaging in the leather bag, while Astrid stood stunned behind him, distractedly looking at the moving muscles of his back. _Broad shoulders,_ she noticed, _really nice. No! You're a Viking, girl! Keep it together!_

Her train of thought was interrupted when she heard a triumphant cry and saw Hiccup turning around with a bunched up cloth and a little round box. He held up the box and opened it. Astrid's nose scrunched up, it was a disgusting looking browngreen salve. He smirked at her, green eyes twinkling.  
"Got the recipe on my travels, helps with almost everything. Here, give me your hands." Numbly she held up her hands and the boy grasped them and started cleaning them out with the cloth and some water. Hiccup was talking to her, but she was just staring at the nimble fingers and bowed down head with granted her a look of some thick and soft looking hair. She smiled wryly, she was turning into one of those cheesy folktales that would be told by Gobber around the campfire. Suddenly she was snapped out of her trance because of Hiccup looking up. Their faces were almost touching eachother, slowly coming closer until Astrid suddenly pulled away, ripping her hands out of the pair that were holding hers so carefully.

"Thanks, Hiccup but I'm late for something. I-I need to go. Bye." Before he could answer she had already sprinted away to Stormfly and had taken off, leaving him behind. He stared speechlessly at the small dot in the sky, hands tingling and heart racing. Then he saw Toothless looking at him with an accusing look.

"What're you looking at?"

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 **A/N**

 **Sorry guys, sloppy update and stuff. It's just a filler. I hope I can write soon again, but I am really, really stressed. Things aren't going well. And sorry for the cheesy Hiccstrid moment, but I really needed it and because it was a filler it isn't a major importance to the story, just some fluffy fluff fluff. BTW, I'm writing this while I''ve been sleep deprived for a week so sorrry for grammar and typos. Thanks for reading.**


	10. Chapter 10

When Hiccup was already flying back to the village, his eartips still burned a fiery red. He was flustered, a fact that his dragon delighted in. Toothless was already nudging at his rider for an hour, and the looks he gave him, well, they implicated a certain thing very strongly. He sighed. Even the fucking dragon saw it. He groaned and closed his eyes, completely lost in the feeling that flying gave him, a strong combination of wind, cold and freedom. He let out another sigh, and looked down at the earth. The forest was rapidly flashing by underneath them, and Hiccup was a bit dissapointed with the fact that he only had a few minutes left to fly before he had to land on the cobbles of Berk. He was jostled out of his musings when they hit a patch of rough air and Toothless suddenly manouvred to the left. The boy gripped the leather handles of the saddle tighter and flattened himself against Toothless' back. He leaned over and whispered in the dragon's ear.

"Let's climb higher, bud." Toothless warbled excitedly and flapped his wings more strongly than before, and then they were climbing into the rosy sky. Hiccup started laughing and screaming in excitement.  
"Yeah! Attaboy! Woohoo!" He felt the wind whipping against his helmet and forcing tears out of his narrowed eyes. He and his dragon started spinning, and the lines of their bodies started blurring and fading into eachother. Slowly they stopped, and Hiccup patted his dragon. They levelled out and then he let completely go of the brown handles, and let his hands hang slack along the narrow lines of his torso. He breathed deeply in and smiled beneath the confinement of the leather. Then he let himself fall. The freedom it gave him never changed, eventhough the small burst of fear almost prevented him from doing it. He closed his eyes and flattened himself against the air currents, like an arrow falling straight down. One thing he didn't know was that certain people on the ground weren't that pleased to see him doing it. They really didn't.

 **On the ground - Five minutes earlier...**

Stoick sighed. It was a long day, full of people complaining about the fact that his son was a devil, and that their chickens were running about again and that Mildew had made one of their children cry. Sometimes he wondered what god he had offended in an earlier life to end up as chief of this island full of idiots. He rolled his neck and winced at the sharp crack that resounded all the way to his skull. He pushed open the heavy wooden doors and started walking slowly down the stairs. His footfalls were heavy after a day full with stress. When he wanted to set foot on the last cracked grey step of the stairs, he heard something that signalled something bad. A scream with a profanity that isn't going to be repeated, lest some of the more innocent people would lose that speck of innocence. He sighed with exasperation. It was probably an escaped sheep. But then he felt his blood chill when he realised who the person was and at the next thing he said.

"Hiccup is falling!"

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Hiccup felt Toothless flying next to him, and when he cracked open an eye, he started laughing. The dragon was pulling the 'tongue out of mouth and flapping gloriously in the wind' again. He crowed and somersaulted a few times and waving with his arms, mock flying.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

 _Oh, Thor._  
When he finally had dared to think that his son had grown out of life endangering situations, he was again proven wrong by the gods. Gobber was waving like a lunatic with his hook, and screaming at Stoick.

"Why is he falling? Stoick, your boy is falling!" He was obviously having an episode, and Stoick was having one too.  
"I don't know Gobber!" Without tearing his eyes from his son, he screamed at the few people walking on the streets to get the other riders, his heart stopping when he saw that Hiccup had almost reached the ground. His eyes started tearing up, please, please, please not again! It was repeated like a mantra in his head. Gobber was gripping him tightly, and he felt his bloodflow being cut off. But that didn't matter. He was going to lose his son, again, and the thordamned villagers were too shocked to call for the dragon riders. Everybody was looking at the sky, at the figure that was coming closer to the ground by the second.

And then Stoick's sadness and panick changed into something else. Anger, when he saw that Hiccup was calmly back on the beast and flying towards the village. A muscle twitched under his eye, and his face became redder than the bushy beard that framed it. The chief balled his hands and walked towards the top of the stairs where his son had landed, laughing and taking his helmet off.

01010101

Hiccup was grinning like an insane person and he rubbed his hand through his hair a few times. But the smile melted away quickly when he saw the big man that was walking towards him in a hurry, followed by a mob of people and Gobber, who was struggling to keep up with his peg leg. He sighed in contempt.  
"Oh, great. There we'll have it." He muttered softly to his dragon. When his father was only standing a few metres before him, eye twitching and red face framed by a big looking frown, he started talking.  
"Hey, hi, dad! So, erm, I have something to do in the, uhm, forge, so-"  
"No, you don't." Gobber supplied helpfully.  
"Thank you, Gobber. But seriously, I've got to go so...-"  
"Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the third, if you walk away, or so help me Thor, you're going to get grounded until Ragnarök!" Hiccup flinched and followed his father compliantly to their house, leaving the confused mob behind.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

They were sitting inside the house for ten minutes already, but the chief still hadn't said anything to him, and Hiccup was starting to feel twitchy.  
"What, in Odin's name, were you doing?" His dad finally said in a tight voice, beard moving shakily in anger being held back.  
"Er, freefalling..."  
"Freefalling?! Really, son?! Are you crazy, we thought you were going to die!" His dad suddenly exploded and stood up, silhoutted by the fire burning behind him. Hiccup flinched and sunk a little deeper in his chair.  
"Yeah, I've done it lots of time before, and Toothless was with me, so nothing could've happened." At his answer a pair of meaty hands slammed down on the table. Hiccup looked up from the ground and was confronted with a death glare.

"I've got an idiot for a son!" Hiccup felt a little pang at that one. "Never again. I won't have my son and the heir of the chiefdom die because of something as silly and reckless like freefalling!" Hiccup started feeling guilty, but then his brain registered something that he really didn't like. Heir?! Now it was his turn to get irritated.  
"Heir? Didn't I already say that I didn't want it?" He asked tightly. His father looked confused at him, and then asked mildly irritated:  
"You still hung up on the whole 'I don't want to become the chief' thing, because son, that's ridiculous." Hiccup felt the spark of anger in his chest and stood up.

"Yes, dad, as a matter of fact, I am. I'm not going to become the chief, not now, not ever."  
His dad breathed deeply in and pinched the bridge of his nose, and muttered angrily.  
"Son, don't be ridiculous. The Haddocks have always been the chiefs of this village and you're certainly not going to break the tradition." Hiccup felt his anger flame up and turned a look of green venom at his patriarch. Stoick flinched a bit at the fury in his son's eyes.  
"Don't," He chuckled darkly, feeling his sanity spiralling out of control. "Tell me what to do." His father, altough a bit disturbed by the look in his son's eyes, didn't back off.  
"It's just a phase, son, and I understand, you're young but-"  
"Just stop. Don't open your mouth, you are only spouting out irrelevant and highly unintelligent arguments. Don't tell me what to do, certainly if it has to do with something like tradition," He scoffed harshly, face illuminated by the flickering fire and painting shadows on his face. He turned away and started walking out of the door.

"Because we already know how that turned out." Then he slammed the door closed behind him. Stoick turned sadly away, shocked by his son's look. Then he saw the beast looking at him from the corner of his eye.

"What're you looking at?!"

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Hiccup kicked at a stone in his way. He was muttering angrily, bitter flames threatening to char his heart, again. He felt it bubbling up and picked up the stone and threw it at the ocean with an exasperated cry. He let himself fall on the ground, lanky body folding up awkwardly on the edge of the cliff.  
"Fucking dads and fucking chiefdom." He hissed at the ocean. He felt the anger flowing into his veins, screaming at him to kick or hit something, but he was forcing it down. He needed to control it. "Fucking tradition." He scoffed a bit defeated at the ocean. Then he just sat there, watching the sun disappear completely over the edge of the ocean, feeling the breeze on his cheeks and how the salted tendrils tousled his hair. The sky wasn't clouded that day, and the night was just as bright as the day. He tore his eyes away from the rolling waves, and turned them to the star sprinkeled sky above. He watched numbly at them, absentmindedly counting them. He sighed and lay back. He was so done with Berk and his body was just itching to jump on Toothless and to start travelling again. He was stressed and bored, a hellish combination and when his dad started talking about something that embodied his worst nightmares and insecurities, he just had to get out, or he'd explode. He tried to silence his mind and focused on the stray pieces of grass that tickled his cheecks, and the cold of the ground below his body. He lay there for a while.

He didn't even notice that he had dozed off until he woke up by the footfalls of somebody. Irritated he opened his eyes and waited until the person was standing next to him. He looked crankily up and breathed out a soft laugh when he saw who it was. Moaning and groaning he started to raise his upper body from the ground, and rolled his shoulders and neck to work out the kinks he'd gotten when he was asleep. He stretched his arms leisurely and then greeted his visitor.

"Hello, Snotlout. Come to spread idiocy, I presume?" He asked sweetly. His cousin kicked him softly against the back and sat down sighing. Hiccup looked bored at him, and then pale eyes locked into green ones. Snotlout gazed with irritation at him and narrowed his eyes, brow furrowing.  
"Why don't you want to become the chief?" Hiccup raised his eyebrows in surprise. Snotlout took it as an incentive to continue talking.  
"I mean, you're obviously intelligent and you have the presence." The bronze eyebrows raised out of sight and his companion started to explain.

"You can forge better than Gobber, have excellent strategetic insight, have got the tact and subtlety wich I lack and you are a way faster thinker. And you aren't a fishbone anymore, I mean," As an elaberation he waved his hand in a vague gesture over Hiccup's body. Hiccup started laughing.  
"Why're you laughing?" Hiccup only started laughing harder. Snotlout started to feel emberassed and asked flustered:  
"What is it?!" Hiccup wiped the tears from his eyes and calmed his snorting breaths, still half laughing.  
"Who would've thought that you'd compliment me!" Slowly the red faded from the brawny boy's face and he started laughing too.

After the boys had stopped laughing, repeated Snotlout his question. Hiccup flipped his hair back from his face and leaned backwards. He opened his mouth, and closed it again, a bit clueless about how to answer it without offending his cousin too badly.

"I guess I don't want it because it would tie me down. I still need to discover so much, and something like this would tie me down in all of the worst ways. Plus, Vikings are really dumb, no offence." His cousin still glared a bit at him, but slowly opened his mouth to ask something else.  
"What do you mean, 'tie you down in all of the worst ways'?"

"Tradition, mostly, I hate it. Maybe you have noticed my disdain for it when I flew away on a dragon and then came back to burn down half of the village. So yeah, it's not really my thing, never been. I mean, I've been unconventional for all my life. First I was a fishbone, then an oddity and then a traitor."

"Sounds to me like you're running away." Hiccup looked up with confusion, while Snotlout was standing up. He dusted his clothes off and had already started walking away.

"What do you mean?" Hiccup called after him.

"Think about it, fishbone!"

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Hiccup was walking back to his house, thinking about the disturbingly wise words that had fallen out of his idiot cousin's mouth. He dragged his feet across the gravel path, kicking up dust and small stones. When he stood before his house he couldn't find the courage to walk inside and confront his father about it, and he walked away. He walked over the small square in the center of the village, and looked at the rebuilt houses, and he could see the flames dancing around them, that day he had returned. He shook his head and walked quickly away from them. He headed straight to one of the beaches, wich was nearby the docks in the proximity of the caves that were out of the sight from the guards. Before he had Toothless was this his retreat from reality. He climbed carefully over the rocks that weren't stable, muscles slowly remembering the way. He was climbing through the caves for about fifteen minutes when a circle showed itself at the end of the last cave. Smiling he climbed through it, ending on the small beach at one of the more calm spots of the shore. He was walking to the water's edge when he saw something that made him widen his eyes. Wooden boats were anchored at the shore, but luckily none of the people on it were walking around. But there was something wrong. He looked at the sails and the sign on it made one thing crystal clear. Outcasts. He had to tell it to his dad! Hiccup slowly backed away, back turned to the caves and careful to not make any sound. But where were the guards? There should be some guards right?

 ** _Thunk._**

Hiccup scrunched his face together. _Great, just fantastic._ He slowly turned around and saw the grinning face of an outcast. He grinned lopsidedly at the bigger man and chuckled nervously. He tried to feel for his sword, and started to panick when he remembered he had stored every weapon away in his room. _Well, that's going to be running_ , he thought.

But as he tried to run away he felt somebody holding him by his throat, and Hiccup tried to pry the thick arm off of him, but was too late. The last thing he saw before everything went black were the stars.

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 **A/N: yeah, i thought let's write something. Sorry for typos and grammar mistakes, im still very tired and stressed. Also, if there are any Belgian readers: I pray for you. I don't live that far away from Belgium, and I heard at school about it. I pray for all the wounded and their families, and also those of the deceased. You've been very brave until now. Please stay strong, and now that I and a very big part of Holland stand behind you guys.**


	11. Chapter 11

When he woke up, the first thing he'd noticed was the distinct feeling of nausea and the feel of a boat rocking back and forth. The second thing he'd noticed was the feel of rough fabric covering his eyes, and a scratchy rope binding his wrists. Hiccup couldn't honestly say that this had never happened before, and so he kept quiet and still, trusting his ears to make up for the things he couldn't see with the blindfold covering his eyes. He tried to recall what had happened for him to land in this situation, and with a start he remembered. He started to panick, nostrils flaring and he tried to loosen his wrists somehow, but it was hopeless. The knot was way too tight for him to move, and if he tried to take out his dagger, -if he still had it-, the Outcasts would notice him trying to get away. Sighing he tried to orient himself. He couldn't feel the breeze of salty seawind against his cheeks, so that ruled the deck out. Knowing the Outcasts he was probably in the prison beneath it. He focused to hear something, but the only thing he heard was the crash of the waves and something scratching at the wall. Resigned he leaned backwards and frowned. They didn't know who he was, right? Those years he'd gone away he was careful not to be seen or to identify himself so there was no way for the Outcasts to know who he was. And then something else creeped into his mind, the face of Johann who was really surprised to see the dead heir of Berk in Holland. Letting out a frustrated growl he stomped his foot. After that had happened his face was splayed over every little inch that could be covered by parchment. Well, that explained why he was taken then, instead of being killed with a knife. He sighed and tried to calm his breathing. The only thing left for the boy was to wait.

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"Thordamned Hiccup." Stoick muttered angrily to himself. He didn't even know what he said was really offensive to his son. it was a great honour, really! Surely his son, his smart, sensible son, could see his point? He looked into the fire and sighed, knocking back another cup of mead. He swirled the liquid in the glass around and looked at the lazy way it sloshed inside. Sighing he knocked back the last bit of it, and stood up with a heavy groan. He walked towards the solid wooden door, and pushed it open and was greeted by the darkness. Sundown was already over and the stars in the sky twinkled merrily between wisps of thin clouds. He slammed the door behind him and started walking down the stairs, not seeing who was running up the stone steps towards the Haddock residence.

"Ouch!" Astrid muttered from on the ground. She stood up while rubbing her head, and looked up with a wince on her face. The chief of the tribe stood sheepishly before her, the look being the exact same his son often had when he ruined something he shouldn't have ruined. She almost smiled. Almost. She remembered why she was here, and ignored the attempt of her chief to apoligise.  
"Hiccup." She said hurriedly. Stoick lifted one of his brows.  
"I... I think he's missing." Immediately the father of the victim looked a lot more alert than he had a moment ago.

"What do you mean, my son is missing?!" He half screamed at her. Astrid felt her heart sink into her shoes. If he wasn't home, then he wasn't on the island. She and her dragon had scoured the island for the lanky boy.  
"He... He should've been to practice. W-With the riders, at sundown. But when he didn't show up, I started to get worried. We searched the entire island, and Hiccup is nowhere to be found, and if he isn't here..." Slowly her voice drifted off, and Stoick looked at her. He blinked and then pushed her aside, only to walk briskly towards the rest of the village, followed by Astrid. When they were on the square he turned around, facing the blonde.

"Call the entire village for an emergency meeting at the Mead Hall. Now." And with that, he turned around again and walked up the steps to the Mead Hall.

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"Wake up, runt!" Hiccup woke up when the shock of cold water and a hoarse scream were noticed by his senses. Shivering and with eyes shooting around the room wildly he shot up from his lying position on the wooden floor. He looked up to his captor, who already had him roughly lifted by his arms, and frowned when he saw the sword on his side. The man in question threw the bucket on the floor with a dull thud, and pulled the thin boy with him through the door of the prisoncell without saying a word. Hiccup struggled all the way, tried to plant his feet on the ground and stop the menace who had him by the arm, but gave up when his weight counted for nothing compared to the man before him, who looked like a really muscled elephant. Stumbling Hiccup followed the man, meanwhile taking in his surroundings.

It was clear that he was in a ship, and he was also right when he earlier deduced that he was below deck. Everything was made out of a dark wood, except for the parts wich were destined to keep men and beasts trapped inside their cells. Iron menacles were hung up the walls, but also some unsavory things of wich Hiccup didn't doubt were destined to torture some things out of the people who were trapped inside the ship. When they exited the prison they entered a hallway wich was dimly lit with torches, placed on every other two metres. He tried to take in as much as possible, but it was hard when the person next to him was pulling him along with a strong grip and no patience. Irrated Hiccup looked up at the man, whose face was blocked by the view of a bushy black beard, filled with some unfinished braids and crumbs and pieces of food from an earlier meal. He grimaced at the stench that came from the untamed menace and tried to lean away from it. Finally they reached a ladder and a trapdoor, wich was opened by the Outcast. The bronze haired boy blinked at the sensation of fresh air streaming through the opening, but was interrupted when the Viking threw him outside, and quickly followed him. When the man picked him up again, Hiccup glared at him.

"Ow?" He hissed at him, but the only reply he got was silence. Then he was pushed forward like a ragdoll, and just when Hiccup started wondering why, he got his answer. The entire crew was on deck, and they were staring at him like he was something to eat. But one man had his back turned towards him, and Hiccup concluded that that should be the captain of the ship. And, judging by his chainmail and stature, also the chief. _Great,_ he thought, _just what I needed._ But his train of thought stopped when the man in question turned around, and grinned vilely at him.

"Hello, Hiccup." The boy flinched, well that ruled out pretending he was someone unimportant.

"Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third, returned from death. It is an honour to meet you. My name is Alvin the Treacherous." Hiccup almost widened his eyes at the name, but he forced himself to keep on a pokerface and stay still and silent. The black haired man grinned again and walked closer to him.

"Well, he certainly doesn't take after his father, does he, boys?" He asked the crew, and they all started laughing voraciously at the words their chief had said. Hiccup felt his face fall back into a look of pure sarcasm.

"Sure, laugh, it's not like I've never heard it before." Immediately all the Outcasts started laughing harder until his chief silenced them with a movement of his hand.

"He's got some spunk, boys." The men around them started chuckling a bit again. Hiccup winced when their chief was standing even closer to him than before, and tried to lean away from the big threat before him. He swallowed, and realised he should've kept his mouth shut.

"Tell me Hiccup, I've heard some things about you." Alvin started with a low voice. Hiccup scrunched up his nose in disgust when he saw the way the chief leered at him. Swallowing heavily he tried to steer his look away to the men on the ship, but felt equally disgusted when he saw some looked at him in a worse way. Sighing he turned his gaze back to the chief before him, and focused on an ugly mole on his cheeck with some hairs sprouting from it.

"I've heard you trained a dragon." Hiccup was careful not to let anything through that would notify the big man before him that, _yes_ , he had trained a dragon. Instead, Hiccup fell back on something he knew just as well as the back of his hand.

"A dragon? Pray tell, how would I stand before you if I had tried to train a fucking dragon?" He spit it out with as much sarcasm as he could muster. The Outcast frowned suspisciously and started speaking again.

"So you didn't train a dragon? A Night Fury to be exact." Hiccup huffed out a high scoff and shook his head before he answered with an overly sweet voice.

"Sure I did. And while I was doing it, the Night Fury didn't even try to kill me and my twig body and snap it into pieces." When the Outcasts looked triumphantly at him, the sarcasm he spoke with became real and Hiccup looked at them with disbelief.

"No, you idiots, of course I didn't train a dragon! Look at me!" He huffed a bit skeptically and tilted his chin. He pierced the gaze of the chief with his own.

"Hm, well, than you're pretty useless to us. But still, I bet Stoick would pay handsomely to get his runt back." He finished the sentence with a cracked tooth grin. Hiccup felt a muscle underneath his eye twitch.

"Wow, Outcasts aren't that smart, are they?" He asked while trying to swallow the fear back.

"Excuse me?" Alvin said with a tight voice and narrowed eyes. Hiccup tried to word his sentence carefully without being killed as result.

"Well, Stoick and I aren't really on good terms right now. When his lackeys found me in Europe and dragged me back to Berk, I kind of set everything on fire and was thrown into prison as result." The Outcasts started laughing at this, but their leader wasn't as easily won over.

"I don't believe you." He said quietly, voice daring him to say something back.

"Why else do you think I was on that beach? I was trying to escape from the prison, you thordamned oafs! And I almost succeeded, but you just had to capture me." The silence that followed his sentence was tense. Hiccup started getting a bad feeling about it. Slowly a smile crept on the face of his foe, and then the man turned around to face his crew.

"Well, lads, that's a pity, isn't it." He stood there in mock selfpity. Then he turned around again, and approached Hiccup, who felt he was standing way too close to the tall boy. He swallowed heavily when a meaty hand ran throught the copper and bronze locks, highlighted by the silver shine of the moon, only to continue its journey on Hiccup's shoulder to his chest. Hiccup stepped backwards, but was stopped when he felt a wooden wall in his back. Panick started making him shoot his eyes around, searching for an escape. Just when he needed his dragon, was Toothless nowhere in sight. Dread filled him to the brim when Alvin started creeping closer again and grabbing him by the arm and throwing him forward, to the crew. The boy stumbled but halted just a few short metres away from the Outcasts, who were all grinning at him in a way that left Hiccup positively vindicated. He felt Alvin standing behind him, and his voice boomed to the crew.

"He's actually a pretty little thing, isn't he, boys?" The crew catcalled callously and agreed loudly with their chief. Hiccup felt a hand in his hair, forcing his face even higher and exposing his throat. "Another thing that makes it clear he doesn't take after Stoick."

"Well, so we can't get dragons and we can't get money from Stoick either." Alving mock tutted and Hiccup felt him shake his head behind him, fear making him tremble. Keep it together Haddock! He thought. The group leered expectantly at their chief and the captive. Hiccup tried to swallow the lump in his throat away. But when he tried to move away from the smelly body behind him, the grip on his hair tightened and he almost choked because of the strain on his throat. He tried to think, but was way to ovewhelmed by the paralysing fear.

"But we deserve a treat, lads, don't ya think?" The men grinned and nodded happily. He felt Alvin shaking behind him with silent chuckles. He felt sick, really, really sick. He started breathing more heavily, struggling to get oxygen in his lungs through the narrow pipe of his throat. He spasmed wildly when he felt something wet on his neck, making a line while moving up to his jawbone. He heard a soft giggle in his ear. The crowd looked greedily to the boy who was held by their chief, and some were palming their crotches while checking the lean leather-clad body before them out. Hiccup closed his eyes so hard it pained him to do it. Half-heartedly he tried to free his hands, and his eyes shot open when he felt that the knot on his wrists had loosened. A spark of hope made its way through the panicky despair. _He could free himself._ He only needed to play along.

"Oh, yeah, sure. Killing and capturing and torturing really deserves a treat. Why not ask Loki to dance around while having sex with a bear?" The crowd didn't say anything, but looked at their chief for comebacks.

"Hm, we'll shut you up in a second, boy. And then the things that will come out of that pretty mouth won't be sarcastic words." The crew started laughing again, and some were already ditching their weapons in favor of putting their hands in their pants. Meanwhile, Hiccup was cackling wildly inside his mind and felt his hand slip out of the knot, and then the other one followed. He held the rope with two hands, and loosened the knot further and slipped his hands back in, wincing a little when he felt the rough rope chafe at his wrists.

Then he startled once again when he was forced on his knees, and face the dirty pants of Alvin. He should be scared, but he couldn't be, not when the chief was so dumb to have no one behind Hiccup's back to see how his hands slipped out of the rope once again. A strong hand grabbed him by the sides of his face, making his jaw and cheekbones ache like mad. Then he felt his face being forced up to look into the leering face of the bulky man.

"Well, nevermind that actually. After this you won't even have a voice to scream your pleas for help with." The man smiled darkly and loosened his pants, forgetting the sharp sword on his side. Hiccup glared at him. When the hand tried to force his mouth open, he stubbornly fought it.

"Shh, open up, little boy. I've got something for you." Hiccup tensed when the man took out his erect penis, and waved it in front of his face. Even when the man slapped it on his cheek, Hiccup kept a steely facade, waiting for the right moment. When the man had forced the tip inside of his mouth, he saw his chance. He bit on the offending and vile piece of meat and grabbed the sword. Alvin jumped back with a yelp, cradling his bits with two hands.

Hiccup spit the dirty taste out of his mouth and gripped the sword tighter. He walked forward, with green fire burning in his eyes and had the crew and Alvin recoiling instinctively at it. Hiccup grinned when he saw that some already had their weapons ready. Calmly he walked forward, and knocked the first few soldiers who had come screaming at him out with a smooth movement of the back of his sword. The crew looked scared at him. Hiccup looked down at the big bodies on the ground and snorted when he thought of how easy they went down. He felt anger taking over and he gripped the sword even tighter. He tested the weight a bit, and decided that it was a well enough sword. But when he looked up again, the Vikings around him felt their insides freeze three times over. Then they understood why the Berserkers warned them about the scrawny boy.

"Finally," Hiccup started with a dangerous low voice, eyes glinting. "A _challenge._ "

And with those words, the fight began.

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 _ **Meanwhile with the dragon riders...**_

"Ugh, I knew Hiccup couldn't defend himself." Snotlout spoke the sentence with a mix of irritation and bravado. Astrid glared at him from Stormfly. The boy on the Nightmare continued.

"I mean, look at him, he's just so... Hiccup!" Astrid snorted and looked over the dark waves of the ocean again, straining her eyes to see in the dark with the only light coming from the moon and the stars. Fishlegs started hovering closer to Snotlout, and looked skeptically at the pompous boy.

"He bested you in a swordfight just yesterday." He supplied helpfully. Normally, Astrid would've grinned. The twins also started flying closer. Tuffnut and Ruffnut cackled at Fishleg's answer.

"Yeah," Tuffnut started, "And he bests you in archery and dragonriding too." Snotlout glared at the male part of the blond twins.

"Tsk, that's just luck. And besides, I _obviously_ have the better looking genes in the family." Again the twins started laughing, but this time it was Ruffnut who looked amused at Snotlout and answered him.

"Better looking than Hiccup? Are you mad? He has all the girls in the village running after him, and, if you look a bit more closely, a lot of guys give him lingering looks of lust too." Snotlout started stuttering at that and scoffing skeptically.

"What does he have what I don't?" Rufnutt opened her mouth widely again and looked at the offended boy with something that looked like pity.

"Dreamy eyes, nice hair, a Night Fury, leather suit, amazing muscles...-" At that Snotlout looked really undignified.

" _Muscles?!_ " He sputtered out. "That scrawny little git, and you say-" But he couldn't finish his sentence. Astrid looked at them with a serious look in her eyes.

"Look down, an Outcast boat." The gang squinted their eyes and finally saw the sails of an Outcast ship, and a big moving blur on it. Fishlegs leaned over to look at the scene better.

"But what's happening on it?" He asked confused, trying to make out what the blur was.

"Let's find out." Astrid said determinedly while signing to the rest of the group to descend.

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Hiccup felt his arms burn. He had struck down a major part of the Outcasts, but even his fury and his skills combined didn't equal the power needed to hold off an entire ship of horny Outcasts. For everyone he struck down, another came into their place.  
He was panting loudly, and looked around, blood streaking his hands and his sword. The situation was hopeless, especially since Alvin finally had found another sword and came at him. The chief grinned wildly at him.

"You little piece of shit. You really are going to feel it when we're done with you." With those words he swung his sword down, and Hiccup blocked it but his arms quivered with the strength it took to hold of the swing. He felt his feet slip away, and then his grip on the sword. With a cry he threw himself to the side, losing his sword in the progress but saving his chest from becoming minced meat. He tried to stand up, but was ruthlessly pushed down again.

" _Let me go!_ " He'd forgone any hope of escaping or persuading his way out, and he now resorted to clawing at the others face and trying to wring himself from the tight grip. But he was held cruelly down, and he started panicking when he felt his pants being tugged down. He resumed his struggles, now fighting with even more fervour and desperation but sobbed when he couldn't get away.

"No! You filthy rapist!" Instead of letting go or giving an answer, Alvin just laughed and pulled his pants open. Hiccup started struggling when he saw the disgusting meat standing erect. He was again forced on his knees and the penis dangled in front of his face. Hiccup looked at it in horror and felt a silent tear drip down from his eye.

"Now, little boy, eat my cock." Alvin grinned down at the trapped rider, but Hiccup felt something rise up in him again. In a last act of defiance he bit it again, and rucked up his pants, scrambling away and finding a sword in one of the dead Outcasts' hands. He grabbed the end of it, slippery with blood, while he was pulled back by his ankle. He turned around again and pointed the sword with shaking hands at the throat of the chief. The man gripped his wrist tightly in retaliation and twisted it harshly. Hiccup let out a cry, but before he let the sword fall he swung with it for a last time. The blade sliced its way through the Outcast's eyebrow and cheekbone before it fell down with a metallic clatter. Hiccup started hyperventilating when this didn't stop the pursuit of the Viking.

"You're dead!" The man screamed out and tried to force Hiccup's legs open. And then they heard the familiar sound of a dragon growling and shooting fire. Alvin couldn't be more afraid. Hiccup couldn't be more relieved.

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 **A/N Soooooo that was pretty dark. I am not good with this stuff. Whew, that was tough to write. But it kinda just happened y'know. Sorry for the darkness in this chapter. Also, thanks for all you guys who follow me and review stuff. It really lifts my heart up to write more shit for this shit. yeah, i am so eloquent. Well peeps, thanks for readin!**


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